London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

The German government is pushing for the deadline for discussions over the proposed BAE Systems and Eads mega-merger to be put back as political issues threaten to overwhelm the deal.

Thomas De Maziere, the German defence minister, said this morning that there were too many details to be ironed out in the highly-charged £30 billion merger to formalise a deal by the tight 10 October deadline. The UK Takeover Panel set that date for an announcement, 28 days after news was leaked of the talks to create a pan-European aerospace and defence champion.

Noting that the Panel can grant an extension, De Maziere said: “Perhaps we need more time. It depends on the answers for our questions and so I think we need more time.”

Those “questions” are likely to involve the political influence that the German and French governments can wield over the combined group. Eads boss Tom Enders wants the deal so he can restructure the governance of the Airbus-owner, which would mean watering down governmental interference.

The UK government appears more supportive of the deal and would continue to hold the golden share in the combined group, which allows a veto of any foreign takeover, that it holds in BAE. The French and German governments would also get a golden share, but would not keep existing powers such as being able to nominate board members.

BAE faces problems with shrinking defence budgets worldwide, and its prospects are considered so bleak by some Eads investors that they are likely to be seeking around 70% of the merged group. The current proposal gives Eads shareholders 60% and BAE investors the balance.

The US aerospace and defence group Boeing is hoping that the stuttering deal will distract the two businesses, allowing it to steal a march on its rivals. However, Eads continues to trumpet its projects, and yesterday its North America division held a demonstration of its combat helicopters ahead of a competition to provide the aircraft to the US Army.